142: Chapter 142 Carrier-based Aircraft Weapons

Half a month passed in the blink of an eye, and Chu Ge had almost finished organizing the data regarding the carrier-based aircraft system.

Many technologies in this system were derived from the previous blueprints of the aerospace carrier. In System Big Brother's database, many technical indicators for the carrier-based aircraft were directly replaced by serial numbers.

The system only provided a prompt: for specific progress reports, please refer to previous data records.

This made things easy for it. Chu Ge finally understood the purpose of these serial numbers; it turned out they were waiting for him here.

Fortunately, he had made backups in advance, archiving all subsystems with serial numbers separately, so it wasn't difficult to find them.

Setting aside the similar ones, the carrier-based aircraft's weapon system was the standout among the mediocre options, barely counting as something new.

The conventional weapons for the drones were Electromagnetic Rapid-fire Cannons on both sides of the wings, with a 30mm caliber and a rate of fire of 80 rounds per minute.

Seeing this caliber and rate of fire, Chu Ge couldn't help but think of Close-In Weapon Systems (CIWS). Their commonalities were small calibers and high rates of fire, which made him unable to hold back.

"System Big Brother, from the data, this looks a bit like our CIWS, and purely from the rate of fire, it's not even as good as our rapid-fire cannons."

Chu Ge remembered that powerful modern CIWS, like the US Phalanx, had a rate of fire of around 4,500 rounds per minute, while Russia's Kashtan CIWS and China's Type 1130 CIWS even reached a terrifying rate of over 10,000 rounds per minute.

Any one of those would crush the data of this drone in terms of rate of fire.

[There is no comparison. I have studied your rapid-fire cannons. 3,000 rounds per minute can intercept Mach 1-1.5 missiles. For missiles above Mach 3, even a 5,000 rounds per minute rapid-fire cannon struggles to intercept. At that point, a rate of 10,000 rounds is needed to compensate, and even then, a 100% interception rate cannot be guaranteed.]

System Big Brother rattled off a mountain of data, which truly shocked Chu Ge. He hadn't expected this guy to know everything; it seemed it wasn't just freeloading all the time.

"So professional. What? Have you been studying our Earth's military technology lately?"

Chu Ge's eyes darted around; he wanted to trick System Big Brother while it wasn't paying attention.

[Not interested. I was just bored, just padding the word count!]

"Padding the word count? You think you're an encyclopedia? Shouldn't it be taking up your memory?"

[Infinite memory, feel free to take it up.]

This one sentence completely convinced Chu Ge. No wonder things like Doraemon were stored in the database; to it, the more, the merrier.

"Fine, you're my dear big brother. Back to the previous question. You mean the tactical objectives are different, right? Earth's CIWS pursues a high rate of fire to intercept incoming high-speed missiles and such."

"And the cannons on the aerospace carrier's aircraft don't consider those?"

[Yes. Drones accompany infantry in combat; electromagnetic cannons are light weapons, and cluster torpedoes are considered heavy weapons. Or when dealing with similar aerial targets, they don't need such a high rate of fire. The current rate is sufficient to ensure endurance and continuity in accompanying operations.]

"What do you mean?"

[How many rounds do you think your CIWS can fire at such a high rate?]

Chu Ge understood instantly. He remembered that if those systems fired at their maximum rate, they could probably only last three to five rounds before failing; their ammunition capacity was limited, which is why the concept of saturation attack tactics exists.

"With so many carrier-based aircraft, ganging up on a big guy would work too, right?"

[Sure. You don't need to gang up to destroy the military equipment here. But against something like a heavy cruiser in the Military-Industrial System's database, it's no different from a couple of mosquito bites, unless you launch nuclear torpedoes.]

System Big Brother mentioned nuclear torpedoes, and only then did Chu Ge remember that carrier-based aircraft also had ultimate weapons.

His heart skipped a beat as he quickly found the reports related to nuclear torpedoes. After a hurried scan, he was a bit disappointed.

They were just normal nuclear fission weapons, not even nuclear fusion, let alone more powerful things like quarks. The biggest difference from the nuclear torpedoes in the sea was the speed.

In terms of speed, the two were worlds apart.

The fastest modern torpedo should be the Supercavitating Torpedo developed by the former Soviet Union. Its speed can reach about 200 knots, traveling about 100 meters per second in water, which translates to 370 km/h for the cars we usually drive.

This speed isn't actually slow; small planes might not even be as fast.

As for the extent to which various countries are currently researching these fast torpedoes, Chu Ge hadn't paid attention. Moreover, this stuff is classified; he only knew that several capable countries were secretly researching it, but there was no specific word on their progress.

However, as fast as supercavitating torpedoes are, they have fatal flaws: their range is extremely short, and their method of attack is relatively singular—only straight-line strikes without turning, which is also the main reason for their limited range.

The nuclear torpedoes from the Military-Industrial System are essentially small aerial rockets, propelled by jet power. They are actually no different from missiles, except that modern missiles are like little brothers in terms of speed compared to them.

This is the most fundamental difference between aircraft powered by chemical fuels and those with nuclear fusion reaction devices.

After chatting for a while, Chu Ge had a general understanding of the combat methods of the aerospace carrier's aircraft.

He stopped bothering System Big Brother and began to focus on studying the remaining progress reports.

The drone system was basically finished. After archiving, Chu Ge pulled out the data for manned aircraft.

Manned aircraft are special because their functions are more diverse. They can carry heavy nuclear torpedoes to attack large ships or important targets, or go light for reconnaissance, jamming, and such.

Regarding reconnaissance and jamming, manned carrier-based aircraft carry quite a bit of electronic equipment.

Besides the important Neutrino Detectors and Light-wave Jamming Equipment, there are various other reconnaissance methods like video, photography, and radar detection. Through the aircraft's central Quantum Computer, these interface with the data control center of the aerospace carrier at the Base Camp, feeding the reconnaissance information back to the Interstellar Fleet immediately.

Seeing the Quantum Computer, Chu Ge remembered that he had sent Zheng Jun to the quantum research team and hadn't checked on him since.

He saw Yan Tianhao often, though, as Chu Ge occasionally needed to go and help with technical difficulties regarding the Nuclear Fusion Engine.

Recently, these progress reports were being transferred to the sub-groups in batches. Once the data was verified, it entered the next stage of research. Among them, there were quite a few systems related to the quantum field.